Incorrect version of Xcode selected

There have been reports of xcode-select not pointing to the new Xcode location for some users after upgrading from an Xcode version older than 4.3. If you are having problems even with the latest MacPorts version and xcode-select -print-path does not print /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer on your system, or

Warning: Xcode appears to be installed but xcodebuild is unusable; some ports will likely fail to build.

then you need to run:

sudo xcode-select -switch /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer

This is particularly important for people who have error messages referring to their old compiler locations after installing Xcode later than 4.2: you need to reinstall the package that stored the old compiler location if you see an error message like this:

So far this error is seen in previously-built perl and python when building perl or python modules. For example, if a py27-xxxx port fails to install and the log contains error messages of this type, try reinstalling the main python27 port with:

sudo port -n upgrade --force python27

Note you might have an older version of the xcode-select tool in case you installed Xcode 4.2 after installing the Mac OS X 10.7.3 update. If the command xcode-select -version returns version 2003, this is from Xcode 4.2 and we recommend to install the update once again with the ​Mac OS X 10.7.3 combo updater. The current xcode-select version that comes with Mac OS X 10.7.3 identifies itself as version 2307.

Port installation fails with "no destroot found"

Installing a port fails with the error message "no destroot found", for example:

We do not know what causes this occasional problem, but the solution is to clean the affected port and try again. For example the above error shows libpixman is the port that failed, so to clean it you would run:

indicates that your install_name_tool or strip commands (both are part of the Xcode command line tools) are too old to deal with the types of objects produced by the compiler. (The number after "unknown load command" may be different.) This can happen if you have forgotten to ​update the Xcode command line tools to a version designed for your version of OS X.

This usually means libiconv is installed for the wrong architecture(s) and needs to be rebuilt. To rebuild libiconv:

sudo port -n upgrade --force libiconv

But if libiconv's architecture was wrong, it's likely other ports have the similar problem. The usual reason for architecture mismatches is that you migrated from Leopard or earlier to Snow Leopard or later and did not follow the migration instructions.
Another possible culprit is installing a third-party software package that was itself created using MacPorts, which overwrote some of your MacPorts files; see #xmlwf for more on this.

The error message is confusing. What OS X should be saying is: "The program or library X is linked with /opt/local/lib/libiconv.2.dylib and requires version 8.0.0 of that library. /opt/local/lib/libiconv.2.dylib is at least version 8.0.0, but it's built for the wrong architecture, so I'm going to look around for another libiconv.2.dylib. Ok, I found /usr/lib/libiconv.2.dylib and it's built for the right architectures, so I'll use that instead. Wait, /usr/lib/libiconv.2.dylib is only version 7.0.0. That's too old for X. I'll display an error message that the version is too old."

Another possible culprit is that you have DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH set in your environment; if so, try unsetting it.

port fails with: Image error: /opt/local/bin/a2p…

Error: Activating perl5 @5.12.3_1 failed: Image error: /opt/local/bin/a2p is being used by the active perl5.8 port. Please deactivate this port first, or use the -f flag to force the activation.

The perl5.8, perl5.10 and perl5.12 ports used to conflict with each other unless a particular variant was selected. This has now been solved by suffixing their binaries with a version number, and the perl5 port installs links without any suffix. The old versions of perl5.x conflict with the current version of perl5.

Fix:
To fix this issue, upgrade whichever of the above ports that you have installed.

port upgrade installed and \( perl5.8 perl5.10 perl5.12 \)

Fetch failures

If fetch failed for a port, you can still get the distfile from anywhere else. For example, the ​main MacPorts distfiles mirror contains most ports' distfiles, or maybe the homepage of the software lists alternative download locations for source tarballs. Just download the distfile and save it to the path shown by port distfiles <portname>. Make sure you get a file with exactly the same name (watch out for .tar.gz and .tar.bz2!) If a port clean --all has been done the distfile directory will have been removed. The directory for each port is created at the beginning of the fetch phase. After placing the distfile, run port install <portname>again.

Note: Checksum failures after a fetch are typically a separate issue. See the FAQ.

Image error: /opt/local/bin/xmlwf already exists and does not belong to a registered port

xmlwf is a part of the expat port (which is a dependency of many other ports, and thus is likely to be one of the first ports to ever get installed), but for some reason this file already exists on your computer, and MacPorts did not install it.

One possible reason for this is that you have installed a 3rd-party software package—possibly ​gprolog or ​swi-prolog or ​SMBup—which was itself built with MacPorts, set to its default prefix, and therefore conflicts with your normal use of MacPorts in its default prefix. The developers of the 3rd-party package you installed should not have distributed their software in this manner; they should have configured MacPorts in a custom prefix instead, one that is unique to their software. (For example, in the case of swi-prolog, /usr/local/swi-prolog or /opt/swi-prolog would be good choices.)

Another possible reason is that you previously had MacPorts (and expat and probably other ports) installed, then somehow uninstalled MacPorts itself, or at least its registry of which ports are installed, without actually uninstalling those ports, and have now installed MacPorts again with a clean registry, which therefore thinks no ports are installed, though some still are.

Either way, the cleanest solution at this point is to follow the ​MacPorts uninstallation instructions. This will remove the 3rd-party software package that installed itself unannounced into MacPorts' prefix, and/or ports installed by your prior MacPorts installation. Then you can ​install MacPorts again.

A port failed to build with a message referring to 1/lib: No such file or directory

Explanation:
When upgrading from Tiger to Leopard without removing the previous Mac OS version, updated versions of some libraries in /usr/ and /usr/lib/ are moved from /old/path/ to /old/path 1/. Notice the space before 1. This makes some configure scripts build bad build instructions, making the build phases of several ports fail.

Two incriminated directories have been encountered :

/usr/X11R6 1/
/usr/lib/ruby 1/

Workaround:

In order to fix this problem, you can remove the backups created by the installers, and then clean the work directory of the failed port so that its configure script will be re-run:

port clean --work <port>

Retired Problems

The following problems are now solved, no longer apply to current MacPorts or should no longer be happening due to other circumstances. They are kept here for future reference and to avoid breaking existing links.

Build failures after upgrading to Xcode 7.2

After installing the update to Xcode 7.2, port installations or upgrades using xcodebuild may fail with the following error due to an error in the Xcode installation. This has been fixed by Apple in Xcode 7.3.

Could not find service "com.apple.CoreSimulator.CoreSimulatorService" in domain for uid: 502
2015-12-10 17:21:27.407 xcodebuild[7363:75765] launchctl print returned an error code: 28928
2015-12-10 17:21:27.407 xcodebuild[7363:75765] Failed to locate a valid instance of CoreSimulatorService in the bootstrap. Adding it now.
Could not find service "com.apple.CoreSimulator.CoreSimulatorService" in domain for uid: 502
2015-12-10 17:21:27.431 xcodebuild[7363:75765] launchctl print returned an error code: 28928
2015-12-10 17:21:27.431 xcodebuild[7363:75765] *** Assertion failure in -[SimServiceContext reloadServiceIfMovedOrAbortIfWeAreInvalid], /BuildRoot/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/CoreSimulator/CoreSimulator-201.3/CoreSimulator/SimServiceContext.m:451
** INTERNAL ERROR: Uncaught exception **
Exception: Unable to lookup com.apple.CoreSimulator.CoreSimulatorService in the bootstrap. This can happen if running with a sandbox profile. When running with a sandbox profile, make sure that com.apple.CoreSimulator.CoreSimulatorService.xpc is owned by root, not group writable, and not world writable. See <rdar://problem/22142915>.

As an alternative, the immediate workaround is to manually fix the permissions of the path mentioned in the error message. User should be 'root', group should be 'wheel', and write permissions only granted for the owner:

Then clean the port that originally failed to build, and try to build it again.

The problem occurs when building ports that use an autotools-based configure script, after having upgraded ncurses to version 6 but before having upgraded readline to use ncurses 6. The reason the problem occurs is that part of the boilerplate that autotools bakes into every configure script is to locate an awk implementation. The first one it checks for is gawk, so if the gawk port happens to be installed, a configure script will try to use that. gawk depends on readline, which depends on ncurses, and if you have upgraded ncurses but haven't upgraded readline to use the new ncurses, then gawk will be broken.

MacPorts usually upgrades dependencies first, so you wouldn't see this problem if gawk were listed as a dependency of the port that failed to build. But we don't want to add unnecessary gawk dependencies to thousands of configure-based ports when the awk implementation that's part of OS X would work just as well.

Before MacPorts 2.1.3 it was possible to leave the registry in an inconsistent state if an uninstallation was interrupted. Although this has been fixed in version 2.1.3, the fix does not cure a previously corrupt registry.

The perl script attached to the ticket about this bug fixes the registry. The direct link is here​.

MacPorts port installs fail after an OS X upgrade

An installation of MacPorts and the ports installed by it are only designed to work on a single OS release and a single CPU architecture. So in most cases, MacPorts needs to be reinstalled after an OS upgrade.

Can't find Tcl configuration definitions

The file tclConfig.sh was included in the Mac OS X base in earlier releases, but was moved to the Xcode Command Line Tools in 10.9; these are normally installed the first time you run clang after accepting the Xcode license, but running the configure script doesn't run clang until after the Tcl check. The easiest way to force installation is to run:

xcode-select --install

after installing Xcode 5.0.1 or later.

Note: This can no longer occur starting with MacPorts 2.3.0, because it ships its own copy of Tcl.

The port command will remind you to install Xcode (or upgrade if you have an old version lying around from a previous installation of OS X). This is most easily accomplished using the "App Store" application on your Mac, which requires an Apple ID. Xcode 4.5 is the version currently available for Lion from the App Store.

However, as with Xcode 4.3 and later (below), the command line tools required for the build process are not installed automatically and require an additional manual step to install the tools through Xcode's preferences.

Note: MacPorts 2.3.0 will print a warning if the command line tools are missing and advise you how to install them. On systems below 10.9, the message should read:

The Xcode Command Line Tools don't appear to be installed; most ports will likely fail to build.
You can install them from Xcode's Preferences in the Downloads section.
See http://guide.macports.org/chunked/installing.xcode.html#installing.xcode.lion.43 for more information.

Missing Command Line Tools

Xcode 4.3 and later do not include a fully working set of command line tools by default. Starting with Mavericks, shims in /usr/bin will check for an Xcode installation and automatically use the tools provided by it. In the first case, nothing will build, in the second case, most ports will build, but some will fail because they expect headers to be located in /usr/include (which is empty or doesn't exist when the command line tools aren't installed).

On systems earlier than 10.9 you must open Xcode, go to Preferences, and download this component from the Downloads section. You will require an Apple ID to download the component. Starting with Mavericks you can install the command line tools by executing xcode-select --install on the command line.

Note: MacPorts 2.3.0 will print a warning if the command line tools are missing and advise you how to install them. The message will read:

The Xcode Command Line Tools don't appear to be installed; most ports will likely fail to build.

The message will advise you how to install the missing tools, on 10.9:

Install them by running `xcode-select --install'.

On Mountain Lion and below:

You can install them from Xcode's Preferences in the Downloads section.
See http://guide.macports.org/chunked/installing.xcode.html#installing.xcode.lion.43 for more information.

Xcode License Agreement

Starting with Xcode 4.3, compilation of ports could fail if the Xcode EULA wasn't accepted. Run:

xcodebuild -license

from a terminal window and follow the prompts. After accepting the EULA, retry building the port.

With some ports and some versions of Xcode (e.g. libunwind-headers with Xcode 4.4+ or any version of Xcode 5) you may need to accept the license as root, i.e.:

sudo xcodebuild -license

This may need to be repeated after any Xcode upgrade.

Note: MacPorts >= 2.3.0 will print an error message and abort if it detects this situation. The message will read:

It seems you have not accepted the Xcode license; most ports will fail to build.
Agree to the license by opening Xcode or running `sudo xcodebuild -license'.